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Topic: Pulp Hero-ification (Read 3317 times)

Howdy guys, what do your herofiles look like for the great pulp heroes like the Avenger, Doc Savage, Green Hornet, Kato, the Shadow, and the Rocketeer? I've got something already worked up for Doc Savage for his appearance in Patriot City: Tales, but I'd like to expand it, so I'd like to hear other ideas.

Well, when I made my Shadow hero, I gave him some basic melee attacks to reflect his training in the far east. He isnt as powerful as Captain America or Batman in that regard, but he is certainly quite skilled. He of course has a single shot gun blast, as well as a crazy full out twin 45. barrage. I also give him a hypnotism attack and a "cloud the minds of men..." style invisibility power at a moderate cost and finally a area fear attack of his crazy laughter. Its not that powerful, so it wont scare off the powerful foes, but it sends the mooks running.

Howdy guys, I'm adding more characters here, and I could use some more advice.

I'm working on the following:

Dick Tracy = I'm thinking I'm going to differentiate him by making him a full firepower character. That tommygun on the PV mesh should be a nice feature. I'm trying to think of some clever ways to represent his gadgetry, but I'm coming up blank.

Miss Fury = She's just a woman in a catsuit, but I'm going to tweak her some to make her interesting. I want to give her some more mystical powers in light of the whole 'Furies' theme. At the least she'll get some fear inducing powers. I'm justifying this because the suit was always rumored to have power, just never displayed any. Thoughts?

Mandrake the Magician = I'm going with the illusionist, comic-strip character rather than the big league Zatarra-style magician. I'm going to give him illusionist and some hypnotic powers. Suggestions?

Green Lama = I'm going with something like the Project Superpowers version, with the plant control and mental powers, to help make him easier to balance and to make him more fun to play. There really isn't room in this story for a straight up Superman type character (hence no Black Terror, who is one of my favorites).

Tracy: Will it be just him, or will there be any of his other agents in the level? If there's any of his other allies on the level, even in a scripted undercover capacity, you could simulate the two-way wrist radios by giving him one of this Enhanced Senses attributes.

Mandrake: without looking up specific examples of his spell use (and what's included in Illusionist), were his illusions ever used to induce fear (Panic) or anger (Rage) in those that viewed them? Confusion (Mental Blank)? Invisibility for himself, maybe others?

Good suggestions PG. Tracy will be available as a recruit and in the RR, so he'll not have a specific part in a mission. I thought about giving him Summoner and the ability to call in cops, but that might be weird when the story takes the players out of the city and into the middle of Africa...

Yeah, Mandrake is a consummate illusionist and hypnotist. He could make people see almost anything, as I understand it. Unfortunately, there aren't many episodes of his radio show around. I see what you mean. He could have a whole range of mental attacks.

Reading some of the Miss Fury stuff it kind of looks like the suit "enhances" her abilities, and makes her either crazy or fearless or both. She is stronger, faster, more agile, more perceptive, more everything, but she isn't "super". I think that may have been the original idea, but it was forgotten in just a few months. I'm pretty sure Tarpe Mills drew her with claws, but I can't remember her using them.

Anything you want Mandrake to do, he should be able to do it, or, at least, make his opponents think he can.

He's got a single shot pistol attack with low damage and medium KB, a 5 shot attack that has light KB, a light punch with some KB, a big kick with high KB, a 6 shot Tommygun burst that does medium damage and some KB, and a three hit combo for light damage. I've portrayed his radio watch as a Cerebral Balance power, which I'm only moderately happy with.

Miss Fury is a vicious scrapper with a range of melee attacks, including blinding swipes, but she also has a 'Fury's Torch' ability, drawing on her mythical name, which causes panic, and a weak hex power to draw on the idea of the suit being cursed.

I give most pulp heroes "Fancy Footwork", and make it work verses all attacks. These guys didn't get hit nearly as often as they should. Except for The Spider, then he was likely as not to just ignore it until the plot called for him to spend a chapter or two out of combat so that things could go to Hades in a hand basket. I give Doc and The Shadow a fairly high chance of avoiding attacks, others just average (25-50%). I know that may seem high, but the main villains (Shiwan Khan, The Green Bell, John Sunlight, Voodoo Master, and so on) are also tough to hit with ranged weapons. Let's face it, anyone who goes up against The Shadow would have to be.

You might remove the "claws" attribute from Miss Fury. She can have an attack with piercing damage, but she might should have some kind of acrobatic skills.

DG, everyone (except Captain Midnight oddly enough) does indeed have a PD similar to that. I don't have them quite so high for the most part, but they're all customized. Yeah, the villains do have healthy PDs.

I've decided I like the extra 'omph' claws give Miss F. I might give her a combo attribute to give her acrobatic too, though.

I think the summon is easier to justify.My thinking on a weaken swap was was also along the lines of calling for help but rather than reinforcements, he would get special instructions on the foe's weakness or you do 300 percenter and make it like he got encouragement or something.

Hmm, good ideas, YL. My first instinct for Tracy would be to give him Summoner, but the characters leave the States in the second act, so I'm worried that it might just be weird to have him summoning a band of cops in the middle of Berlin or the jungle. Do y'all think I'm overthinking that?

A weaken swap is an interesting idea...or perhaps a genetic damage power?

Miss Fury doesn't seem to necessarily have great skill from what I'm reading (though, I've got zero experience with the character outside of Masks 2), so I'm not sure about Combat Skill. I'm always hesitant to use Blitzkreig, as it just seems too powerful. Perhaps I'm being silly about that.

Here's some new ones.

I've already mentioned Mandrake, but I just got a dynamite skin from Daglob and have been working on his build. At the moment I'm building him like the total support character, tons of direct attacks that inflict various secondary states to reflect his illusion and hypnosis abilities. He's got Illusionist and a good Passive Defense. I'm trying to decide what to do for damage powers. He's got a solid punch, but I'm debating if I should give him a ranged damage power (electrical?), considering that he isn't REALLY a wizard, just a hypnotist. You could justify it, but I'm torn. What do y'all think?

Daglob also sent me materials for some of Doc Savage's aides. There are some givens for these guys, but what I'm looking for is ways to make them stand apart from each other, though I'm sure they'll share a lot of similarities. I'd love to hear suggestions for powers and attributes that would help them be unique. Obviously, they'll all have some attacks with Doc's 'super-firer pistols,' and maybe some gas grenades and the like.

Monk Mayfair: He's going to be a melee machine, lots of melee attacks, a big brawler. I'm thinking of giving him Tough Guy, Hot Tempered, Wall Climbing (apelike as he is), Wrestler (seems fitting), and I think I'll give him and Ham Symbiote.

Renny Renwick: The man with the hands, Renny is also going to have some powerful melee attacks, but he's going to be all about knockback. I'm thinking of giving him Grim Resolve, as he tends to be hard to put down, but that's all I've got for him.

Ham: Obviously Ham will have his swordcane and a bunch of fast melee attacks with plenty of stun, including a knockout gas swap. I'm not sure what to do with attributes for him, other than Nimble, perhaps.

On the wrist-radio, would you be able to make slightly different builds of the DT hero, location specific, with the only change being what sort of help he Summons? In the States, it would be the usual suspects; in Berlin, it would be local law enforcement; and the jungle could be British troops or Colonial troops led by a British officer. Ideally, there would be a longer delay in the summoned forces showing up when outside of the states, to simulate the time it takes to coordinate through multiple networks.

For Mandrake, I would hesitate to give him any actual damaging powers, if you want him to stay just a hypnotist/illusionist. That being said, there's nothing saying that you can't come up with a way to simulate a victim completely believing the illusion, so much that he believes the damage he's taking is real. Is there a way to have a Summoned creature attack just one target, and not be able to be hit? I know that such a powerful defense makes for a an expensive, and short-lived, minion. Is there anything that can be gleaned from the way the Poltergeist force is created? I know that it seems to be an invisible force, and can't be targeted, but it attacks random characters, friend & foe alike.

You might look at how the Astral Form SFX (Professor X and Phoenix, I believe, maybe White Queen?) work. The attack appears and strikes, but isn't "real". The SFX isn't animated, I don't think. There are quite a few Direct Attack SFX that could be used as illusions; the one with snakes, for instance. And passing out in fright would basically put a combatant out of the action. Too bad you can't put them into GM's Option (AKA: "The bad guys don't recover after 10 pm").

Dick Tracy: Hmm...you know...I think y'all may have hit on something. What if I give Tracy Summoner, but give him multiple minion types with clear labels, and leave it to the player to keep things setting consistent? He could have cops, military, and maybe something else? Maybe some British troops too, if I could find something like that. Did Random Days ever get to the WWII era troops in his importing? Great ideas guys; I think you may have cracked this one for me!

Mandrake: Yeah, you could definitely justify giving him a damaging attack, saying that the target is tricking themselves into believing they are taking damage, and that has the same end results. Y'all's ideas about FX are good, but here is the central question that I'd like your thoughts on. In terms of gameplay and accuracy, knowing that Mandrake is an illusionist AND knowing that you want him to be fun to play with, would y'all rather he be all illusion or have a damaging power?

:EDIT: Okay, I gave Tracy Summoner 2, set it up where he can summon a cop or a soldier, made it cost him medium energy, and did the Ant's area attack as the FX. I like it. It works pretty well, it isn't super overpowered, and it fits Tracy. Great ideas guys! I also added a strings entry, so the player will get a note about when they should summon which minion type.

On another note, after Daglob sent me his awesome skins/skope for Renny and Monk, Doc's aides, I worked on their HFs, and I'm pretty happy with them, though not 100%. I'd love any feedback y'all had to give me.Monk:

Monk is a melee machine. He's got a two different melee attacks that do area damage, one 360 and one 180, both multi-contact, making him a dynamo in tight spaces, which seems to fit. I've also given him a powerful grapple and the Wrestler attribute, which I quite like for him. He also has a few ranged attacks, focusing on grenades. He has an 'anesthetic gas' grenade, a knockout bomb, that does very low acid damage and great stun. He's also got an acid burn grenade to reflect his chemist's skills. Ideally, I'd like to give him a few grenade types, but I don't have room. I'm toying with the idea of giving him a customized Trickshot attribute. He's got his superfirer pistol, though he's only got three shots with it. It's very low damage, but does great stun. Of course he has a PD that lets him dodge some physical attacks. In terms of attributes, I decided to give both him and Ham 'Symbiote,' and the rest are as I suggested earlier. One of the things I'm not sure about is that all of his melee attacks are 'Fast,' and I'm not sure they should be. Thoughts?

I'm pretty happy with Renny, except for his Attributes. I've only got three, Grim Resolve, Shake It Off, and Level Headed. I would sort of like to give him at least one more, but I'm not sure what it would be, other than, perhaps, Team Player. In terms of powers, Renny is also a melee specialist, but he's all about knockback, using those giant mitts of his. He has a range of melee attacks, all of which have at least medium knockback, except for his combo. He also has a knockout grenade, and two different super firer attacks, one free one, and one medium cost with six shots.

At one time (and in "Defenders of the Earth") Mandrake had REAL magic powers. You could make the case for that.

Now, he was trained in Tibet, and we know about those strange Tibetan monasteries that teach you all sorts of stuff, like the ability to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him... make you Sorcerer Supreme... build you awe-inspiring armor... teach you unknown and extra-powerful martial arts...

There is no rule that says he can't turn invisible or punch the bad guys in the nose...

About the only thing I might change on Renny is give him a doorbusting punch, maybe piercing or heavy damage. Monk might be a little stronger than normal; he could, after all, fold silver dollars between his thumb and forefinger.

Haha, yeah, those Tibetans knew all kinds of stuff in the old stories. There's a fun line in Project Superpowers about Shangri-la, the stand-in for Tibet, and vice/versa, which says something like 'over half of us got our powers here.' Ha, that's probably true.

Ohh, good ideas on Ham Renny and Monk! I've edited them appropriately. I've given Monk level 4 strength. I really wish there was an attribute that could give someone, like a .5 strength bonus or something. I suppose what I really need to do is just edit the weight of stuff so we have more of a spectrum for these guys.

I'm rather inordinately pleased with myself for the legal puns that make up his power names. He's got a number of fast sword attacks, and a 'knockout gas' swap for his sleeping potion on his sword point. He's also got some different rapid-firer attacks, including one that uses phosphorous rounds that create blinding flares. I'm debating making him tougher and giving him more energy. Once again, I've only got 3 attributes for him.

For Mandrake, I'm MOSTLY happy with the build. I feel like there are one or two powers I might need to change up. He's tough because, as DG said, he can pretty much do anything. I'm debating taking something out and giving him a cloaking power. If y'all see anything missing that y'all think he should have, let me know! He's almost all direct state change powers, running the gamut. I'm torn about several things, but I've resisted giving him Spellcaster or the like for fear of breaking balance. I decided to give him a damaging attack, a beam with a cool, mystical looking FX. I figure that he'll be more fun this way, but he'll still depend on other characters to do real damage dealing.

First, updates. I've given Renny and Monk strength 4, and I've revised the weights of streetlights and the like so they can't be picked up at 4 any longer. That will give me a bit more depth of design. I've also given Renny Crack Shot after DG reminded me that he and Doc were the best shots of the team. I've bumped Ham's health up to 4 to give him a bit more staying power, and I've given everyone a minimum of 4 energy. It's just too annoying waiting for energy to replenish in .

So, my new characters. Well, DG is still hard at work on Doc's aides, and he gave me an excellent Long Tom Roberts, as well as a good start on ideas for designing him. Here's the finished product. I'm pretty happy, and I especially like DG's ideas of playing into LT's electrical wizardry to differentiate him.

He's got Blitzkrieg, as he's apparently the scrappiest of the five, and he's also got a modified (15) Resilient, because he's much tougher than he looks. He's got Hot Tempered and Grim Resolve, but he's also got Tracker, and that's the one I'm not sure about. Basically, in one of the books he builds a portable radar unit to track bad guys, and I was trying to think of gadget type uses of his electrical genius I could give him. That's all I could come up with. Any other suggestions?

In terms of powers, he's got a few different combos, low cost, low damage (multiplied by Blitzkrieg), and a solid area melee attack that does stun and knockback. He's also got a railgun of his own invention (once again, thanks to DG), which makes him unique among Doc's crew. This is, unlike the rapid-firers, a high damage, low accuracy weapon. He's got a single shot that does high damage, medium stun, high KB, and moves very fast. He's got low accuracy with it, and it costs 1 energy, so he can't just blaze away with it. However, if it hits, it's going to hurt. He's also got a three shot attack with similar stats, but its got a medium cost. Finally, he's got two different electrical attack, a taser-type beam that is short range, very high stun, and some KB, and a small area attack that does good damage and stun.

So, how's he look?

Next up, thanks to Death's Jester, I've got a character I have wanted to put in this mod but never thought I'd be able to, Jungle Jim! I've got an excellent skope (courtesy of DM) and skin, and I have been planning exactly what to do with Jim for a while. Interestingly enough, he's actually a bit similar to Tom.

I've got a pretty good concept for Jim, I think, but I need a little help bringing it together. He's basically a big game hunter and explorer, very much the 'great white hunter' type. So, I decided to design him with the idea of a hunter armed with a big, high caliber rifle at the center of his HF. He's got Tough Guy, Level Headed (he is a pretty cool-headed fellow), Wall Climbing, and Crack Shot. I've also given him Tracking, as that seems to fit a skilled hunter. In terms of powers, he's got a couple of melee attacks, a single punch, a double blow with good stun, and a four contact combo with a medium cost and solid stun. I'm debating making his single punch medium damage, as Jim is pretty good with his fists, but I haven't made up my mind yet. He's also got a standard free, single shot pistol attack with light damage, stun, and medium range and accuracy. Then he's got a very high damage rifle shot that has a medium cost, high stun, and extreme KB. The hunting rifle packs a wallop! He's also got a three shot attack that has similar stats but is high cost. Now, here I began to run out of steam. I gave him a 'Crippling Shot' that does good stun and power null (though I may switch it to speed decrease). Finally, thinking of his jungle and hunting experience, I gave him a 'Jungle Traps' power that tosses a bunch of small proximity explosives that catch enemies in stasis. I'm pretty happy with that one, and it adds a little something unique to Jim. That way he can catch the enemy and just sit back and pick them off with that rifle of his. I need one more power before his passive defense, but I can't figure out what it should be. I would love to hear some suggestions!

Well, that's just about all the new characters. All that remain are Kolu and Johnny, so we're making great progress!

That's a good idea, Kk, and I had actually thought about that. Animations are limiting, and I am toying with the idea of giving Kolu some poison attacks. However, depending on how Kolu comes together, I might do just that. Thanks for the response, man!